


Prisoners of the Dark

by scriptscribbles



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen, Stormpilot, more off to the side but the relationship is present, so I decided to make them say it, there was so much I felt they needed to say to each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-31
Updated: 2015-12-31
Packaged: 2018-05-10 15:00:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5590600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scriptscribbles/pseuds/scriptscribbles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kylo Ren and Finn are trapped, both by the walls of an ancient prison and by their pasts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Prisoners of the Dark

Finn hit the wall hard, rough stone slicing up his skin even through the tough layer of his jacket. That jacket had brought him an awful lot of trouble, or at least its owner had. Finn could have had a much easier life running away, but Poe and Rey had made him braver. He became a hero, and being a hero meant being slammed unceremoniously into dingy prison cells.

Not just dingy. Dark. Stifling. An oppressive shroud of silence and cold threatening to choke him. Poe and Rey couldn't save him soon enough. Being stuck in the dark alone like this, with nothing but his painful memories, well... it didn't really lend itself to a good time.

So when his senses adjusted to the absence of anything, it was with relief that another heartbeat could be heard. Another person, their breathing deep and slow but oddly on edge. Instinctively, Finn reached out. There was something he'd learned recently, something very important: suffering was always better with a hand to hold. He just knew that if he could reach out to whoever it was, everything would be all right.

First, he found only stone. The same cold brick that enveloped him, like a hard, corrupted womb. But stroking along the brickwork, he soon found it. A single brick out of place. He reached in his hand, desperate to find someone to cling to.

Another hand, however, was already in the gap. And it was deathly cold.

* * *

Kylo Ren sulked. He was rather proud of this particular sulk. He'd had an awful lot of practice over the years with sulks. Intimidating underlings to do his work or face his wrath, getting Snoke to care about his problems, getting his parents to notice him... well, they certainly noticed him now. Too late for them, though. Best not to think about it.

But after so much time in the dark, there was little else to think about. After all, it was their fault he couldn't get out. The force had failed him. Ordinarily, he'd tear the walls to pieces and then use those pieces to batter his captors to a pulp. Just to let the rage out and wreck it all, all so delightfully simple. But he couldn't do it, even after killing _him_. Instead, all he could think of was them. And worse, _her._

She was everywhere in his head now. That girl who refused him, who fought him off. Nobody ever dared do that. He would punish her in the most exquisite ways for daring to. But when he closed his eyes to contemplate her impending agony, to focus his rage, all he could see was her face. And she wasn't screaming, no, she was doing something far worse. She was laughing. And he wanted it.

When the new presence arrived, all Kylo Ren felt was relief. Not for another person; he hated people. Useless simpletons with no appreciation for the dark side, or for the arts of his grandfather. But it was a distraction from memories of Rey, and thus was welcome. What's more, it was a riddle. He'd felt this presence before, but couldn't place it. Someone insignificant was daring to become quite the opposite. He reached out hungrily to the hole he had punched through in one of his earlier, more violent moments of sulking, greedily searching for something new to contemplate.

* * *

Finn started with the obvious, because he had to know. If he was to be trapped with this stranger until Poe and Rey arrived to save him (as he knew they eventually would), he was determined to be friends with them, and as Poe taught him, an important first step was learning names. Perhaps they didn't even have one, and Finn could name them himself. He'd already thought of a few names he'd like to give. And so it was that he began by asking, "who are you?"

The stranger's hand clenched within his own, uncomfortable with both his touch and his sincere interest. Though their retort declared that "It doesn't matter," Finn doubted it.

"It does to me," he told his new friend. Well, hopefully a friend. "Don't you have a name?"

A long silence fell before they replied, "I've had a few."

"My name's Finn," he said enthusiastically. Perhaps the stranger just needed trust and encouragement. After all, that's all he ever needed.

* * *

Kylo Ren did all he could to resist a groan (which, quite frankly, wasn't much). Cheery. Nosy. Despicable. This was why he didn't bother with people. They were petty and irritating. However, he needed any help he could get. And still, there was the mystery. Why did he know this person? Why did they feel so familiar?

"I feel a connection," he told this new enigma. "Do you feel it?"

"I already have a boyfriend!" was their protest. Ugh. Domesticity. How vulgar. How dull.

"That's not what I meant!"

His neighbor, this "Finn", if that was their name at all, just ignored that. "He's coming to get me. They all are. I'll be out soon. I'm a big deal."

Anyone who had to protest that they were a big deal, in Kylo Ren's experience, very clearly wasn't, not that he ever realized that applied to himself, as well. No, he was always told he was special, from the very beginning. Because of his parents, because of the force, because of all those lofty expectations he had no interest in filling. And yet here he was, failing to be the person he wanted. The insolence of this man, to make him try to feel insignificant? Particularly when he was doing such a good job feeling that way on his own...

Oh well. It was something new to brood about. Someone new to hate. He ignored their further attempts at conversation other than merely as further material to drive his hate. If he could hate strongly enough, perhaps he could even break free.

* * *

Finn fretted. It had been a long time since he had last been brushed off so easily for caring, but never would it be long enough. That was his life for too many years, just callousness and condescension in response to his compassion. And alone in the dark, it was easy to let the mind wander into those darker corners, to wonder if Phasma and the others were right. What if his friends never came? If he were left forever in the dark and alone, never another hand to hold?

It had been a long fight to be who he was now, to find a place where he would be loved for loving rather than damned and to protect it from those who had been his own. Finn couldn't bear to contemplate losing that. He had to have faith that the people he loved would come, and if that meant fighting internally rather than externally to cling to it, well, it was worth it, and he would fight until it tore him apart.

* * *

In the neighboring cell, the Sith found himself torn apart. His parents. Rey. Finn. They all overlapped, all jeered from the core of his being. He couldn't block them out, a part of him attacking himself. All he knew was lashing out, and lashing out at himself was far less satisfying than breaking other things or other people.

His first instinct was to target his neighbor. That'd be a nice distraction for a little while. But it'd ultimately be meaningless, and Kylo Ren refused to ever consider being meaningless. He clung to another tactic, a simple question, one he could only justify to himself by lying about its sincerity, pretending it meant nothing.

"Do you think you can change who you are?"

His clueless, depressingly ordinary plaything gave a predictably dull response, asking "what do you mean?"

Kylo Ren sighed, restating himself. "Do you think you can run from where you came from? What you originally were?"

The answer was surprisingly interesting for an ordinary man. Said he, "Well, I've tried to."

"But," the murderer of millions begged, "can you really leave it?"

* * *

Finn noted the hint of desperation in his neighbor's voice. They needed reassurance. His mind flashed back to that first meeting with Poe, who had more than enough confidence for both of them. That cocky, confident, kind man meant everything to him for good reason. His smile, his laugh, his sincere belief in good people- those were enough to make Finn believe in something better. Perhaps he had it in him to do the same for this poor creature. Surely a little kindness was worth a try.

"Of course you can," he reassured the stranger and himself. Maybe that's how Poe worked. By telling everyone things could be good, he came to believe it himself. And if enough people believed it, maybe they could make it so.

"Have you?" On with the difficult questions.

Finn struggled with what to say, trying to balance truth and self-doubt. "I like to think so."

"That's not a straight answer."

Resisting the urge to make the obvious joke about not being straight himself took a short moment. Committing to idealism took a few longer ones. "Yes. You can leave behind who you were made to be for who you are." His confidence shocked him, but he refused to let on that it did. This person clearly needed to believe.

* * *

It was all Kylo Ren needed to believe. Power surged through him again. He was his own person, his own Sith, free of all the pressures of his parents and of the galaxy at large. Free to get her and bring her the pain she was due. With the slightest gesture, he tore the ancient citadel around him to dust, delighting in the screams of agony of his captors. His lightsaber flew to his hand from the pile of rubble and corpses, and he caught it without even looking. It was like rising from bed after the most relaxing sleep, and he delighted in the feeling of strength returning to his limbs as he obliterated any who dared defy him.

It was fun, for a moment, but soon, the pleasure faded. Just destroying was another distraction. A delightful method of venting his pain the way his lightsaber vented energy, but ultimately meaningless. He was Kylo Ren, and he was greater than just that. He would make a universe shudder.

In the crimson skies above, he felt a stirring. A fleet of First Order ships was descending like a flurry of moths, coming to bring him home. He felt even the darkest heart, Snoke, on board the largest of all. Swearing, Kylo Ren realized what had happened. Snoke was testing him, making sure Rey hadn't weakened him, and it had very nearly worked. A spectacular sulk at the ready, he prepared to show his master just how mighty and just how pissed he was. It was time to do what he did best: complain and break things.

* * *

Rubble shifted, and light shone for the first time into the dark pit Finn had been abandoned in. Better yet, when his eyes adjusted to the morning light, the two people he most wanted to see were there. Poe and Rey. The former was apologizing for how long it had taken them to arrive, the later enthusing about how her training was going and how she'd used new skills to help fight off the First Order to save him. He didn't care. He just needed to hug them both, and didn't delay in doing so.

Soon, the field of rubble and corpses was filled with the laughter of all three.

"But how did you survive?" Rey asked as Poe helped him into her ship. It was the Millennium Falcon, home to old faces and new adventures.

"Kylo Ren wrecked that place," Poe added. "You're probably the only survivor."

Finn paused, searching for the words. "Must have gone easy on me," he said, brushing off the questions. It wasn't hard to work out what had happened, nor was it pleasant to contemplate what he had done. Right then, surrounded by nothing but encouragement and friendship, he resolved never to tell them, despite everything he had learned. Perhaps it was best to let some mistakes of the past be forgotten. There was a brighter future to embrace.

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
